Recently, I posted a meme on Facebook. It featured pictures of well known Democratic politicians who are hypocrites. It called out their supposed "liberal" ideals. This was the text used:
The real motives of liberals have nothing to do with the welfare of other people. Instead, they have two related goals--to establish themselves as morally and intellectually superior to the rather distasteful population of common people and the gather as much power as possible to tell those distasteful common people how they must live their lives~Thomas Sowell
I was taken to task by a lifelong friend of mine who is on the "left" side of politics. I found my friend's perspective reflective of the attitudes that I see in the larger population. Let me show you what I mean: I was told that this was an attempt to "lump all liberals together", "another attempt to demonize them", and that it "served the conservative agenda". I was told that the meme was a lie, and that "not all liberals acted like that".
My first response was to say that if they work for corporations, they deserve to be demonized. I allowed that the politicians should rightly be separated from the voters. I was still told that I was wrong. I had made no personal insult, and had allowed that politicians were not representative of the voters. I was taken to task, yet again. "Words mean something", and "liberals was substituted for Democrats", hence, it was a lie.
To keep from further alienating my friend, I swallowed what I knew, and apologized for offending my friend. My friend responded by saying they "loved me anyway", and then reiterated WHY THE MEME WAS WRONG. I thought this most ungracious of my friend, and let me tell you why. It is no secret that I was a Green. I promoted Green ideals, and constantly let it be known that I distrust both duopoly parties. This particular friend often agrees with my assessment. However, many, MANY days, I signed in to Facebook to see posts my friend has seen fit to disseminate, castigating those on the right. Not only the politicians, but those who support them, and the right leaning media, as well. Fox is frequently referred to as Fixed Noise, and the intelligence of those who vote for the GOP is insulted, their motives questioned and their values denigrated. This is done with zeal and righteous anger. The cognitive dissonance of their (voters') opinions is OFTEN thrown in for good measure. This behavior is indicative of posts and comments by self identified “liberals” every day.
There are several problems I have with this stance.
My friend lumps ALL conservatives together, yet insists liberals not be lumped together.
My friend regularly calls out conservative voters for supporting politicians who take actions to which my friend objects, yet insists liberals are not responsible for the actions taken by the people who vote for them. After all, they are the LESSER evil, and the voters HAD to vote for them to avoid even worse.
My friend told me before the last election, there were no Greens on her ballot, which I knew to be untrue, and which she admitted after voting and seeing them there. My friend also constantly complains of the way conservatives are misinformed or ill informed.
My friend insists the dictionary definition of liberal be used:
liberal-free from prejudice or bigotry; tolerant
But that the POLITICAL definition of "conservative" be used:
conservative as defined by liberals-Opposed to gay marriage, abortion and embryonic stem cell research. Support the right to bear arms, death penalty, and "free market" ideals at the expense of society at large.
But what if the criteria were reversed? Could "definitions" be made to denigrate those who favor THEIR ideology and bolster the "opposing" one?
liberal as defined by conservatives- opposed to the idea that state and local governments should resolve most issues, because some states are populated by dumb, unsophisticated people who cannot govern themselves, and so should let the smart people in the federal government tell them what to do
conservative-Favoring traditional views and values; Traditional or restrained in style; unwillingness to take unnecessary risk
As you can see, either ideology can be made to seem good/bad, depending on who DEFINES the term. BOTH liberals and conservatives do this, preferring the “good” definition for their own ideology and the “bad” for that of their opponents.
During the "acceptance" of my apology, I was told that words had come to mean things they didn't mean before (liberal, being one of them), and that we MUST take back our language. My friend refuses to see that liberals are just as guilty of assigning their own meanings to words as are conservatives. For example, "health care reform" used for the insurance industry bailout known as Obamacare, "Welfare Reform" used for the devastation of the welfare system under Clinton, and "espionage" used for whistleblowing (see Drake, Manning, Sterling, Kim, Kiriakou,Snowden) Also missing from the indignant defense of liberals is the realization that what MUST be done, is to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR ACTIONS. If you vote for a politician, you are tacitly agreeing to the actions they take, whether YOU personally would take those actions, or even agree with them. YOU are responsible for keeping them in office to continue doing the things that are wrecking this country. You are NOT turning away evil, you are CONDONING it and ensuring it continues, if you vote for the "lesser evil".
I know of NO liberals who are not Democrats.
I know that liberals VOTE FOR Democrats.
I know that elected (by LIBERALS) Democrats work for the corporations (and so does my friend).
I know that every politician who has taken money from the Democratic party HAS TAKEN CORPORATE MONEY...that is where the party GETS their money. They do not have to personally meet with the corporations and have cash handed to them. They just have to take party money. You cannot tell me that the "liberal" politicians who are constantly defended for their intelligence and integrity, are not smart enough to see this. It cannot be both ways...either they aren't smart enough to see (which means the defense of their intelligence is VERY suspect), or they ARE smart enough, but take the money anyway (which makes defense of their integrity VERY suspect). Do you know what excuse comes next? "Oh, but THIS politician is BETTER than that", as if it makes any sense whatsoever to constantly accuse one party's politicians of being corrupt for taking corporate money, but insisting the politicians YOU like are NOT corrupt, even though they take money from the SAME corporations.
I know that Democrats have waged covert wars, with the votes of LIBERALS putting them in office. The drone attacks sanctioned by the Obama administration and his party, are 10's of times more frequent than they were under the former conservative administration, pr the subsequent one and ITS party. But, you're told, it's the CONSERVATIVES who wage all the war. As if killing people with unmanned drones is somehow BETTER than killing them personally. I doubt very seriously if the people attacked make such a distinction.
I know that Democrats, who have been put in office by LIBERAL voters, have failed to hold accountable the banks and other corporations that devastated our economy. MILLIONS of people lost EVERYTHING...jobs, homes, retirement savings, and the culprits were not only bailed out with OUR money, they got to KEEP THEIR ILL GOTTEN GAINS. This fact is TOTALLY overlooked by LIBERALS.
I know that Democrats, put in office AND DEFENDED BY LIBERALS, refused to guarantee every citizen access to healthcare, in favor of keeping the TOTALLY SUPERFLUOUS insurance industry IN the equation. There is absolutely NO reason that should have happened. It wasn't the fault of the GOP, NONE OF THEM voted for the bill that eventually became the ACA, anyway...so ....why was the public option not included in either the president's final proposal OR the final senate bill? Because the DEMOCRATS, put in office by LIBERALS , wanted it that way. LIBERALS TOTALLY refuse to acknowledge this fact. If you inform them of it, they will call you a liar, and insist it was the fault of the GOP. What proof do they have? As far as I can tell, the only evidence they can find is that the GOP has tried to repeal the ACA so many times.
I know that Democrats, put in office by LIBERALS, have taken our civil rights and thrown them away. Not only did President Obama sign the bill making indefinite detention a law, his Justice Department immediately filed for an emergency injunction to keep this HORRID travesty in force, while being further adjudicated, when it was found unconstitutional by a federal judge. LIBERALS don't even acknowledge this happened, many don't even know about it. Yet, LIBERALS continue to vote for Democrats who are "protectors of civil rights".
I know that LIBERALS constantly make fun of and denigrate the truthfulness of conservative mainstream media, but will defend the mainstream media that LEANS LIBERAL, as being informative and truthful, when BOTH sides of the mainstream media lie by omission and outright untruths. That means LIES.
I know that if you voted for the people who did these things, you are responsible for them, and cannot use the excuse that you were preventing greater evil. You voted for evil, and you got evil. I'm sure conservative voters think the GOP is the lesser evil, too. In fact, I’m sure of it. Liberals are no less responsible for Democratic evil than conservatives are responsible for GOP evil. They are BOTH evil.
I know that if you align yourself with a group of people, LIBERALS, who put these people in office...conservatives didn't do it, after all...THAT MAKES EQUATING LIBERAL WITH DEMOCRAT NOT ONLY PERMISSIBLE BUT OBLIGATORY. LIBERALS VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS...can you tell me who ELSE liberals vote for, if not Democrats? True, some more adventurous ones vote for a third party on principle, but not many. If they did, third parties would be MUCH further ahead than they are. Third parties are forced to fight every election season to regain the ballot access they had before. In many states, if they did not receive an arbitrary percentage of votes, they lose their access to the ballot.
Cognitive dissonance is NOT exclusive to the right-wing faction of the corporate parties...BOTH LIBERALS and CONSERVATIVES deny their party's culpability in the destruction of our country, and their own culpability in electing the politicians who are complicit in that destruction.
As for my friend, it saddens me that they feel comfortable calling me a liar (which is implied by calling my post a lie), and in the next breath claiming “love”. That is not love...that is hypocrisy, which pretty much proves the meme.
Author’s Note:
Since writing this piece, I have left the Mountain Party of WV (state Green affiliate) and am now registered as Independent. The premise and conclusions remain valid.
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